Thais Impose Wide Ban on Smoking and, Surprise, It Works

By SETH MYDANS

Published: December 19, 2002

BANGKOK, Thailand, Dec. 18—
It was Sunday, and Silom Road was traffic-free, filled with food stalls, hawkers and loud music. Stretched high across the street was a giant banner that carried a new national slogan. It said: ''No Smoking.''

In this anything-goes nation, where the unofficial motto is ''never mind,'' the government seems to have found one evil it will not tolerate.

Last month a stringent new antismoking law took effect that makes it illegal to light a cigarette in just about any indoor public place.

It seems to be taking hold. There are warning signs in restaurants, in hotel elevators and in malls. The air is suddenly and surprisingly free of smoke.

The law makes a few exceptions for bars and entertainment places. But it is hard now for a smoker to find any indoor niche to light up.

It is against the law to smoke in stores or shopping malls, restaurants, barber shops, buses, taxis, elevators, libraries, gymnasiums, beauty salons or even in public toilets. Smoking is banned in most areas of hospitals, airports, banks and museums.

In a land where cigarettes have long been the only vice widely practiced by Buddhist monks, it is now illegal to smoke in temples.

Both the smoker and the establishment face potential fines -- $465 for the venue involved, $46 for the person who lights up.

As antismoking laws take effect in the United States and Europe, Asia has become one of the biggest markets for American tobacco companies. In many places people seem not to have heard about the dangers of smoking, and heart disease is a growing cause of death in Asia.

The World Health Organization says that apart from Singapore, Hong Kong and now Thailand, Asian countries have some of the world's weakest laws against tobacco.

Despite its generally laissez-faire culture, Thailand has had success when it has mounted serious public health campaigns. In the 1970's it was a pioneer in promoting the use of condoms for birth control. Since the 1990's it has been held up as a model for combating the spread of AIDS.

An antismoking lobby has been gaining momentum here over the past two decades and many public places were already no-smoking zones before the new law was passed.

The Thailand Tobacco Information Center, a private monitoring group, said the number of smokers here has declined in recent years to about 12 million people, or 23.4 percent of the population.

It said the percentage of male smokers had dropped from 48.8 percent in 1986 to 38.9 percent in 1999, the last year for which figures are available. The much-smaller proportion of women smokers declined in the same period, from 4.1 percent to 2.4 percent.

The government recently announced plans to replace the black ''death notices'' printed on packs of cigarettes with color pictures and messages about cancerous lungs, premature aging, birth defects and impotence.

''Thailand's tobacco-control efforts are being hailed as among the most successful in Asia, with new regulations implemented every year,'' The Bangkok Post said in an editorial last month. ''How effective these regulations are when put to the test remains to be seen.''

The Public Health Ministry said it would soon be able to answer that question. It has already begun sending inspectors to air-conditioned restaurants for surprise visits.